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The Delegation:
Dr. Thelma Chambers-Young,
Chair; Progressive National Baptist Convention; Mrs. Sandra Ann Pyke
Anthony, African Methodist Episcopal Church; Ms. Linda Ann Bales,
director of the Population Project of the General Board of Church and
Society, United Methodist Church; Rev. Dr. Rhashell Debra Hunter,
director of the Racial, Ethnic and Women's Ministries Program,
Presbyterian Church (USA); Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of
the Washington Office, Presbyterian Church (USA); Ms. Shirley Ann
Nichols, member of the Coordinating Cabinet of the Presbyterian Women,
Presbyterian Church (USA); Rev. Lois Martha Powell, team leader of
Justice and Witness Ministries for Human Rights, United Church of Christ;
Rev. Susan Gwen Turley, Swedenborgian Church; Ms. Arlene Connie
Tyler, president of the Women’s Department, Progressive National
Baptist Convention, Inc.; Dr. Iva Elaine Carruthers, Proctor
Conference, United Church of Christ; Rev. Andrea Lucille Clark,
assistant pastor, Antioch Baptist Church, Tulsa, Okla., (National Baptist
Convention); Ms. Angelita Clifton, student, Drew Theological
Seminary, American Baptist Churches USA; Rev. NaShieka Dawn Knight,
associate minister, Greater St. John (Baptist) Church, Upper Marlboro,
Md.; Rev. Jacqueline Y. Lynch, associate minister, Saint Matthew's
Community AME Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church; Ms. Deborah
Leah Stapleton, lay minister, Fountain Baptist Church (Summit, N.J.)
and a student at Drew Seminary.
National Council
of Churches staff :
Dr. Antonios
Kireopoulos Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell
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| "I hope
we will hear the concerns of women in the region and stand in
solidarity with our sisters and brothers who are caught in the
middle of the conflict."
Dr. Thelma Chambers-Young, delegation
chair
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Daily
Report of the National Council of Churches' delegation of women church
leaders to the Middle East
The Wailing Wall: A House for All Nation
By Angelita Clifton
With silent laments and tethered tears, I buried my face deep in the
crevices of the ha-kotel mourning the destruction. Many believe
the wall is a sacred space, the shortest route to God’s ear. It was
there I whispered spirit to Spirit, petitioning the true measure of
love, which is justice, not just for some but for us all. Beaconing
God’s promises, there I prayed!
Just as the Shema is lifted at dusk and at dawn declaring faith
in one God the giver of peace, my tears professed faith in the oneness
of God’s people. As the wall fortifying the Temple remains, my
lamentations drenched God’s ear, praying for the fortification of all
His living stones.
Building the Temple, King Solomon
specifically asked God to heed the prayers of all who come (I Kings
8:41-43), and the Jewish prophets referred to the Temple as a "House for
all nations"
(Isaiah 56:7). When the Temple
stood intact, history reveals there was respect for God, for His Word
and for each other. There was no doubt about His existence, and all who
would hear acknowledged one God, embracing the harmony of His laws. All
of creation brimmed with the awesomeness of His love and in God we were
one. As a universal center of spirituality and considered a concentrated
point where God’s consciousness filters into the world, at the wall I
prayed in solidarity with the prophets for the return of our oneness in
God.
It is said that all prayers from around
the world ascend to the Wall and from there they ascend to heaven, of
this I am a witness. Biblical teachings reveal
that there are three things which transform lives:
Teshuva
(correcting mistakes
between you and the Almighty, and between you and humanity),
Tefillah
(heartfelt prayer),
and Tzedakah
(acts of
righteousness and charity).
My testimony, as God’s instrument of change, saturated in my own
tethered tears, is that I prayed for these things. Mourning the
destruction of the Temple, I wondered why it was
destroyed. The Old Testament reveals baseless hatred amongst God’s
people as the source of the destruction. At the foot of the stone wall,
in a deluge of grief filled with faith and laboring in love, I whispered
in God’s ear …Give us peace O’
Lord!
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